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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 


PRESENTED  BY 

PROF.  CHARLES  A.  KOFOID  AND 

MRS.  PRUDENCE  W.  KOFOID 


THE  BATTLE  OF   LIFE 


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THE  BATTLE  OF  LIFE 


BY 
HENRY  VAN    DYKE 


NEW  YORK 

THOMAS  Y.  CROWELL  &  CO. 

PUBLISHERS 


COPTBIGHT,  1908  AND  1907, 

By  THOMAS  Y.  CEOWELL  &  CO. 


THE    BATTLE    OF   LIFE 

Romans  xii.  21 :  Overcome  evil  with  good. 

The  Battle  of  Life  is  an  ancient  phrase 
consecrated  by  use  in  Commencement 
Orations  without  number.  Two  modern 
expressions  have  taken  their  place  be- 
side it  in  our  own  day:  the  Strenuous 
Life,  and  the  Simple  Life. 

Each  of  these  phrases  has  its  own 
significance  and  value.  It  is  when  they 
are  overemphasized  and  driven  to  ex- 
tremes that  they  lose  their  truth  and 
become  catch-words  of  folly.  The  sim- 
ple life  which  blandly  ignores  all  care 
and  conflict,  soon  becomes  flabby  and 
invertebrate,  sentimental,  and  gelati- 
5 


fw31602B 


6  THE   BATTLE   OF   LIFE 

nous.  The  strenuous  life  which  does 
everything  with  set  jaws  and  clenched 
fists  and  fierce  effort,  soon  becomes 
strained  and  violent,  a  prolonged  ner- 
vous spasm. 

Somewhere  between  these  two  ex- 
tremes must  lie  the  golden  mean :  a 
life  that  has  strength  and  simplicity, 
courage  and  calm,  power  and  peace. 
But  how  can  we  find  this  golden  line 
and  live  along  it  ?  Some  truth  there 
must  be  in  the  old  phrase  which  speaks 
of  life  as  a  battle.  No  conflict,  no  char- 
acter. Without  strife,  a  weak  life.  But 
what  is  the  real  meaning  of  the  battle  ? 
What  is  the  vital  issue  at  stake  ?  What 
are  the  things  worth  fighting  for.?  In 
what  spirit,  with  what  weapons,  are  we 
to  take  our  part  in  the  warfare  .•* 

There  is  an  answer  to  these  questions 


THE    BATTLE   OF    LIFE  7 

in  the  text:  Overcome  evil  with  good. 
The  man  who  knows  this  text  by  heart, 
knows  the  secret  of  a  life  that  is  both 
strenuous  and  simple.  For  here  we  find 
the  three  things  that  we  need  most :  a 
call  to  the  real  battle  of  life;  a  plan  for 
the  right  campaign;  and  a  promise  of 
final  victory. 

I.  Every  man,  like  the  knight  in  the 
old  legend,  is  born  on  a  field  of  battle. 
But  the  warfare  is  not  carnal,  it  is 
spiritual.  Not  the  east  against  the 
west,  the  north  against  the  south,  the 
"Haves"  against  the  "Have-nots"; 
but  the  evil  against  the  good,  —  that 
is  the  real  conflict  of  life. 

The  attempt  to  deny  or  ignore  this 
conflict  has  been  the  stock  in  trade  of 
every  false  doctrine  that  has  befogged 
and    bewildered    the  world    since   the 


8  THE  BATTLE   OF   LIFE 

days  of  Eden.  The  fairy  tale  that  the 
old  serpent  told  to  Eve  is  a  poetic  sym- 
bol of  the  lie  fundamental,  —  the  theory 
that  sin  does  not  mean  death,  because 
it  has  no  real  existence  and  makes  no 
real  difference.  This  ancient  falsehood 
has  an  infinite  wardrobe  of  disguises. 

You  will  find  it  pranked  out  in  philo- 
sophic garb  in  the  doctrines  of  those 
who  teach  that  all  things  are  linked  to- 
gether by  necessity  of  nature  or  Divine 
will,  and  that  nothing  could  ever  have 
happened  otherwise  than  just  as  it  has 
come  to  pass.  Such  a  theory  of  the 
universe  blots  out  all  difference  be- 
tween good  and  evil  except  in  name. 
It  leaves  the  fence-posts  standing,  but 
it  takes  away  the  rails,  and  throws 
everything  into  one  field  of  the  inevi- 
table. 


THE   BATTLE   OF   LIFE  9 

You  will  find  the  same  falsehood  in  a 
more  crude  form  in  the  popular  teachings 
of  what  men  call  **  the  spirit  of  the  age," 
the  secular  spirit.  According  to  these 
doctrines  the  problem  of  civilization  is 
merely  a  problem  of  ways  and  means. 
If  society  were  better  organized,  if 
wealth  were  more  equally  distributed, 
if  laws  were  changed,  or  perhaps  abol- 
ished, all  would  be  well.  If  everybody 
had  a  full  dinner-pail,  nobody  need  care 
about  an  empty  heart.  Human  mis- 
ery the  secular  spirit  recognizes,  but 
it  absolutely  ignores  the  fact  that  nine- 
tenths  of  human  misery  comes  from 
human  sin. 

You  will  find  the  same  falsehood  dis- 
guised in  sentimental  costume  in  the 
very  modern  comedy  of  Christian  Sci- 
ence, which  dresses  the  denial  of  evil 


10  THE   BATTLE   OF   LIFE 

in  pastoral  garb  of  white  frock  and 
pink  ribbons,  like  an  innocent  shep- 
herdess among  her  lambs.  "Evil  is 
nothing,"  says  this  wonderful  Science. 
"  It  does  not  really  exist.  It  is  an  illu- 
sion of  mortal  mind.  Shut  your  eyes 
and  it  will  vanish." 

Yes,  but  open  your  eyes  again  and 
you  will  see  it  in  the  same  place,  in 
the  same  form,  doing  the  same  work. 
A  most  persistent  nothing,  a  most  pow- 
erful nothing !  Not  the  shadow  cast 
by  the  good,  but  the  cloud  that  hides 
the  sun  and  casts  the  shadow.  Not  the 
"  silence  implying  sound,"  but  the  dis- 
cord breaking  the  harmony.  Evil  is  as 
real  as  the  fire  that  burns  you,  as  the 
flood  that  drowns  you.  Evil  is  as  real 
as  the  typhoid  germ  that  you  can  put 
under  a  microscope  and  see  it  squirm 


THE   BATTLE   OF   LIFE  II 

and  grow.  Evil  is  negative,  —  yes, 
but  it  is  a  real  negative,  —  as  real  as 
darkness,  as  real  as  death. 

There  are  two  things  in  every  hu- 
man heart  which  bear  witness  to  the 
existence  and  reality  of  evil :  first,  our 
judgments  of  regret,  and  second,  our 
judgments  of  condemnation. 

How  often  we  say  to  ourselves, 
"Would  that  this  had  not  come  to. 
pass !  "  How  often  we  feel  in  regard 
to  our  own  actions,  "Would  that  I 
had  done  differently ! "  This  is  the 
judgment  of  regret;  and  it  is  a  silent 
witness  of  the  heart  to  the  conviction 
that  some  things  are  not  inevitable. 
It  is  the  confession  that  a  battle  has 
been  lost  which  might  have  been  won. 
It  is  the  acknowledgment  that  things 
which  are,  but  are  not  right,  need  not 


12  THE   BATTLE   OF    LIFE 

have  been,  if  we  and  our  fellow-men 
had  seen  more  clearly  and  followed 
more  faithfully  the  guiding  star  of  the 
good. 

And  then,  out  of  the  judgment  of 
regret,  springs  the  deeper  judgment  of 
condemnation.  If  the  failure  in  duty 
was  not  inevitable,  then  it  was  base. 
The  false  word,  the  unjust  deed,  the 
foul  action,  seen  as  a  surrender  to 
evil,  appears  hateful  and  guilty.  It 
deserves  the  indignation  and  the  shame 
which  attach  to  all  treason.  And  the 
spirit  which  lies  behind  all  these  forms 
of  disloyalty  to  the  good,  —  the  spirit 
which  issues  in  selfishness  and  sensu- 
ality, cruelty  and  lust,  intemperance  and 
covetousness,  —  this  animating  spirit  of 
evil  which  works  against  the  Divine 
will  and  mars  the  peace  and  order  of 


THE   BATTLE    OF   LIFE  1 3 

the  universe  is  the  great  Adversary 
against  whom  we  must  fight  for  our 
own  lives  and  the  life  of  the  world. 

All  around  us  lies  his  dark,  secret 
kingdom,  tempting,  threatening,  as- 
saulting the  soul.  To  ignore  it,  is  to 
walk  blindfold  among  snares  and  pit- 
falls. Try,  if  you  will,  to  shut  it  out, 
by  wrapping  your  heart  in  dreams  of 
beauty  and  joy,  living  in  the  fair  re- 
gions of  art  or  philosophy,  reading 
only  the  books  which  speak  of  evil 
as  if  it  did  not  exist  or  were  only  an- 
other form  of  goodness.  Soon  you 
will  be  shaken  out  of  the  dream  into 
the  reality.  You  will  come  into  con- 
tact with  evil  so  close,  so  loathsome, 
that  you  cannot  deny  it.  You  will  see 
that  it  has  its  soldiers,  its  servants,  its 
emissaries,  as  ardent  and  enthusiastic 


:I4  THE   BATTLE   OF   LIFE 

in  its  cause  as  if  they  were  serving 
the  noblest  of  masters.  It  inspires 
literature  and  supports  newspapers; 
now  intelligent  and  cultured,  drawing 
the  arts  into  its  service;  now  coarse 
and  vulgar,  with  pictures  that  shock 
the  taste  as  much  as  they  debase  the 
conscience.  It  wins  adherents  and 
turns  them  into  advocates.  It  organ- 
izes the  dealers  in  drunkenness  and 
debauchery  into  powerful  societies  for 
mutual  protection.  It  creates  lobbies 
and  controls  legislatures.  It  corrupts 
the  government  of  great  cities  and 
rots  out  the  social  life  of  small  towns. 
Even  when  its  outward  manifestations 
are  repressed  and  its  grosser  forms 
resisted,  it  steals  its  way  into  men's 
hearts,  eating  out  the  roots  of  human 
trust   and   brotherhood   and  kindnessr 


THE   BATTLE   OF   LIFE  1$ 

and  filling  the  air  with  gossip  and 
spite,  envy,  malice,  and  all  uncharita- 
bleness. 

I  am  glad  that  since  we  have  to  live 
in  a  world  where  evil  exists,  we  have  a 
religion  which  does  not  bandage  our 
eyes.  The  first  thing  that  we  need  to 
have  religion  do  for  us  is  to  teach  us 
to  face  the  facts.  No  man  can  come 
into  touch  with  the  Divine  personality 
of  Jesus  Christ,  no  man  can  listen  to 
His  teaching,  without  feeling  that  the 
distinction  between  good  and  evil  to 
Him  is  vital  and  everlasting.  The 
choice  between  them  is  to  Him  the 
great  choice.  The  conflict  between 
them  is  to  Him  the  great  conflict. 
Evil  is  the  one  thing  that  God  has 
never  willed.  Good  is  the  one  thing 
that    He  wills  forever.      Evil  is   first 


l6  THE   BATTLE   OF   LIFE 

and  last  a  rebellion  against  His  will. 
He  is  altogether  on  the  side  of  good. 
Much  that  is,  is  contrary  to  His  will. 
There  is  a  mighty  strife  going  on,  a 
battle  with  eternal  issues,  but  not  an 
eternal  battle.  The  evil  that  is  against 
,Him  shall  be  cast  out  and  shall  perish. 
The  good  that  overcomes  the  evil  shall 
live  forever.  And  those  who  yield  their 
lives  to  God  and  receive  His  righteous- 
ness in  Christ  are  made  partakers  of 
everlasting  life. 

This  is  the  teaching  of  Jesus :  and  I 
thank  God  for  the  honesty  and  virility 
of  His  religion  which  makes  us  face 
the  facts  and  calls  us  to  take  a  man's 
part  in  the  real  battle  of  life. 

II.  But  what  is  the  plan  of  cam- 
paign which  Christianity  sets  before 
us?      In   what   spirit   and  with  what 


THE    BATTLE   OF   LIFE  1 7 

weapons  are  we  to  enter  the  great 
conflict  against  the  evil  that  is  in  the 
world  ? 

The  natural  feeling  of  the  heart  in 
the  presence  of  evil  is  wrath,  and  the 
natural  weapon  of  wrath  is  force.  To 
punish  crime,  to  avenge  wrong,  to  put 
down  wickedness  with  a  strong  hand, 
—  that  is  the  first  impulse  of  every  one 
who  has  the  instincts  of  manhood. 

And  as  this  is  natural,  so  it  is,  also, 
within  a  certain  sphere  needful,  and  to 
a  certain  extent  useful.  Armies  and 
navies  exist,  at  least  in  theory,  to  pre- 
vent injustice  among  nations.  Laws 
are  made  to  punish  wrong-doers. 
Courts,  police-forces,  and  prisons  are 
maintained  to  suppress  evil  with 
power. 

But  while  we  recognize  this  method 


I 8  THE   BATTLE   OF   LIFE 

of  dealing  with  evil  as  useful  to  a 
certain  extent  and  necessary  within  a 
certain  sphere,  we  must  remember  that 
it  has  its  strict  limitations. 

First,  it  belongs  to  the  state  and  not 
to  the  individual.  When  the  private 
man  assumes  to  punish  evil  with  force 
he  sanctions  lynch-law,  which  is  a  ter- 
ror to  the  innocent  as  well  as  to  the 
guilty.  Then  we  have  the  blood-feud 
and  the  vendetta,  mob-rule  and  an- 
archy. 

Second,  the  suppression  of  evil  by 
force  is  only  a  temporary  relief,  a  pro- 
tection for  the  moment.  It  does  not 
touch  the  root  of  the  matter.  You 
send  the  murderer  out  of  the  world 
by  a  regulated  flash  of  lightning.  But 
you  do  not  send  murder  out  of  the 
world.      To  do  that  you  must  reach 


THE   BATTLE    OF   LIFE  1 9 

and  change  the  heart  of  Cain.  You 
put  the  thief  in  prison,  but  when  he 
comes  out  he  will  be  ready  to  steal 
again,  unless  you  can  purify  his  con- 
science and  control  his  will.  You  as- 
sault and  overthrow  some  system  of 
misgovernment,  and  "turn  the  rascals 
out."  But  unless  you  have  something 
better  to  substitute,  all  you  have  done 
is  to  make  room  for  a  new  set  of  ras- 
cals,—  a  new  swarm  of  mosquitoes 
with  fresh  appetites  and  larger  capaci- 
ties. 

Third,  the  method  of  fighting  evil 
with  force  on  its  own  ground  often 
has  a  bad  effect  on  those  who  follow 
it.  Wrestle  with  a  chimney-sweep,  and 
you  will  need  a  bath.  Throw  back  the 
mud  that  is  thrown  at  you,  and  you 
will  have  dirty  hands.    Answer  Shimei 


20  THE   BATTLE   OF   LIFE 

when  he  curses  you  and  you  will  echo 
his  profanity.  Many  a  man  has  en- 
tered a  crusade  against  intemperance 
and  proved  himself  as  intemperate  in 
his  language  as  other  men  are  in  their 
potations.  Many  a  man  has  attacked 
a  bad  cause  with  righteous  indignation, 
and  ended  in  a  personal  squabble  with 
most  unrighteous  anger. 

No,  my  brother-men,  the  best  way 
to  fight  against  evil  is  not  to  meet  it 
on  its  own  ground  with  its  own  weap- 
ons. There  is  a  nobler  method  of  war- 
fare, a  divine  plan  of  campaign  given 
to  us  in  the  religion  of  Christ.  Over- 
come  evil  with  good.  This  is  the  secret 
of  the  battle  of  life. 

Evil  is  potent  not  so  much  because 
it  has  command  of  money  and  the  "  big 
battalions,"  but  because  it  has  control 


THE   BATTLE   OF   LIFE  21 

of  the  hearts  of  men.  It  spreads  be- 
cause human  hearts  are  lying  fallow 
and  ready  to  welcome  the  seeds  of  all 
kinds  of  weeds.  It  persists  because 
too  much  of  what  we  call  virtue  is 
negative,  and  selfish,  and  frost-bound, 
—  cold  storage  virtue,  —  the  poor  piety 
which  terminates  in  a  trembling  anx- 
iety to  save  our  own  souls. 

The  way  to  counteract  and  conquer 
evil  in  the  world  is  to  give  our  own 
hearts  to  the  dominion  of-  good,  and 
work  the  works  of  God  while  it  is  day. 
The  strongest  of  all  obstacles  to  the 
advance  of  evil  is  a  clean  and  gen- 
erous man,  doing  his  duty  from  day  to 
day,  and  winning  others,  by  his  cheer- 
ful fidelity,  to  serve  the  same  Master. 
Diseases  are  not  the  only  things  that 
are  contagious.     Courage  is  contagious. 


20  THE   BATTLE   OF   LIFE 

when  he  curses  you  and  you  will  echo 
his  profanity.  Many  a  man  has  en- 
tered a  crusade  against  intemperance 
and  proved  himself  as  intemperate  in 
his  language  as  other  men  are  in  their 
potations.  Many  a  man  has  attacked 
a  bad  cause  with  righteous  indignation, 
and  ended  in  a  personal  squabble  with 
most  unrighteous  anger. 

No,  my  brother-men,  the  best  way 
to  fight  against  evil  is  not  to  meet  it 
on  its  own  ground  with  its  own  weap- 
ons. There  is  a  nobler  method  of  war- 
fare, a  divine  plan  of  campaign  given 
to  us  in  the  religion  of  Christ.  Over- 
come evil  with  good.  This  is  the  secret 
of  the  battle  of  life. 

Evil  is  potent  not  so  much  because 
it  has  command  of  money  and  the  "  big 
battalions,"  but  because  it  has  control 


THE   BATTLE   OF   LIFE  21 

of  the  hearts  of  men.  It  spreads  be- 
cause human  hearts  are  lying  fallow 
and  ready  to  welcome  the  seeds  of  all 
kinds  of  weeds.  It  persists  because 
too  much  of  what  we  call  virtue  is 
negative,  and  selfish,  and  frost-bound, 
—  cold  storage  virtue,  —  the  poor  piety 
which  terminates  in  a  trembling  anx- 
iety to  save  our  own  souls. 

The  way  to  counteract  and  conquer 
evil  in  the  world  is  to  give  our  own 
hearts  to  the  dominion  of-  good,  and 
work  the  works  of  God  while  it  is  day. 
The  strongest  of  all  obstacles  to  the 
advance  of  evil  is  a  clean  and  gen- 
erous man,  doing  his  duty  from  day  to 
day,  and  winning  others,  by  his  cheer- 
ful fidelity,  to  serve  the  same  Master. 
Diseases  are  not  the  only  things  that 
are  contagious.     Courage  is  contagious. 


22  THE   BATTLE   OF   LIFE 

Kindness  is  contagious.  Manly  integrity 
is  contagious.  All  the  positive  virtues, 
with  red  blood  in  their  veins,  are  conta- 
gious. The  heaviest  blow  that  you  can 
strike  at  the  kingdom  of  evil  is  just  to  fol- 
low the  advice  which  the  dying  Sir  Wal- 
ter Scott  gave  to  his  son-in-law,  Lock- 
hart:  "  Be  a  good  man."  And  if  you  want 
to  know  how,  there  is  but  one  perfect 
and  supreme  example,  —  the  life  of 
Him  who  not  only  did  no  evil,  but 
went  about  doing  good. 

Now  take  that  thought  of  fighting 
evil  with  good  and  apply  it  to  our 
world  and  to  ourselves. 

Here  are  monstrous  evils  and  vices 
in  society.  Let  intemperance  be  the 
type  of  them  all,  because  so  many  of 
the  others  are  its  children.  Drunken- 
ness   ruins    more    homes    and   wrecks 


THE   BATTLE   OF   LIFE  23 

more  lives  than  war.  How  shall  we 
oppose  it  ?  I  do  not  say  that  we  shall 
not  pass  resolutions  and  make  laws 
against  it.  But  I  do  say  that  we  can 
never  really  conquer  the  evil  in  this 
way.  I  hold  with  Phillips  Brooks  that 
"all  prohibitory  measures  are  negative. 
That  they  have  their  uses  no  one  can 
doubt.  That  they  have  their  limits  is 
just  as  clear." 

The  stronghold  of  intemperance  lies 
in  the  vacancy  and  despair  of  men's 
minds.  The  way  to  attack  it  is  to 
make  the  sober  life  beautiful  and 
happy  and  full  of  interest.  Teach 
your  boys  how  to  work,  how  to  read, 
how  to  play,  you  fathers,  before  you 
send  them  to  college,  if  you  want  to 
guard  them  against  the  temptations  of 
strong  drink  and  the  many  shames  and 


24  THE   BATTLE   OF    LIFE 

sorrows  that  go  with  it.  Make  the  life 
of  your  community  cheerful  and  pleas- 
ant and  interesting,  you  reformers,  pro- 
vide men  with  recreation  which  will  not 
harm  them,  if  you  want  to  take  away 
the  power  of  the  gilded  saloon  and  the 
grimy  boozing-ken.  Parks  and  play- 
grounds, libraries  and  music-rooms, 
clean  homes  and  cheerful  churches, — 
these  are  the  efficient  foes  of  intem- 
perance. And  the  same  thing  is  true 
of  gambling  and  lubricity  and  all  the 
other  vices  which  drag  men  down  by 
the  lower  side  of  their  nature  because 
the  higher  side  has  nothing  to  cling  to, 
nothing  to  sustain  it  and  hold  it  up. 
What  are  you  going  to  do,  my 
brother-men,  for  this  higher  side  of 
human  life  ?  What  contribution  are  you 
going  to  make  of  your  strength,  your 


THE    BATTLE    OF   LIFE  2$ 

time,  your  influence,  your  money,  your 
self,  to  make  a  cleaner,  fuller,  happier, 
larger,  nobler  life  possible  for  some  of 
your  fellow-men?  I  do  not  ask  how 
you  are  going  to  do  it.  You  may  do 
it  in  business,  in  the  law,  in  medicine, 
in  the  ministry,  in  teaching,  in  litera- 
ture. But  this  is  the  question  :  What 
are  you  going  to  give  personally  to 
make  the  human  life  of  the  place  where 
you  do  your  work,  purer,  stronger, 
brighter,  better,  and  more  worth  liv- 
ing? That  will  be  your  best  part  in 
the  warfare  against  vice  and  crime. 

The  positive  method  is  the  only  effi- 
cient way  to  combat  intellectual  error 
and  spiritual  evil.  False  doctrines  are 
never  argued  out  of  the  world.  They 
are  pushed  back  by  the  incoming  of 
the  truth  as  the  darkness  is    pushed 


26  THE   BATTLE   OF    LIFE 

back  by  the  dawn.  Phillips  Brooks 
was  right.  It  is  not  worth  while  to 
cross  the  street  to  break  a  man's  idol. 
It  is  worth  while  to  cross  the  ocean 
to  tell  him  about  God.  The  skilful 
fencer  who  attacks  your  doubts  and 
drives  you  from  corner  to  corner  of 
unbelief  ^and  leaves  you  at  last  in 
doubt  whether  you  doubt  or  not,  does 
you  a  certain  service.  He  gives  you 
exercise,  takes  the  conceit  out  of  you. 
But  the  man  who  lays  hold  of  the  real 
faith  that  is  hidden  underneath  your 
doubt,  —  the  silent  longing  for  God 
and  goodness,  the  secret  attraction  that 
draws  your  heart  toward  Jesus  Christ 
as  the  only  one  who  has  the  words  of 
everlasting  life,  —  the  man  who  takes 
hold  of  this  buried  faith  and  quickens 
it  and  makes  you  dare  to  try  to  live 


THE   BATTLE   OF   LIFE  2/ 

by  it,  —  ah,  that  is  the  man  who  helps 
you  indeed.  My  brothers,  if  any  of 
you  are  going  to  be  preachers,  remem- 
ber this.  What  we  men  need  is  not 
so  much  an  answer  to  our  doubts,  as 
more  nourishment  for  our  faith. 

The  positive  method  is  the  only  way 
of  victory  in  our  struggle  with  the  evil 
that  dwells  in  our  own  nature  and  be- 
sets our  own  hearts.  The  reason  why 
many  men  fail  is  because  they  thrust 
the  vice  out  and  then  forget  to  lay 
hold  on  the  virtue.  They  evict  the  un- 
clean spirit  and  leave  a  vacant  house. 
To  cease  to  do  evil  is  important,  but 
to  learn  to  do  good  is  far  more  impor- 
tant. Reformation  never  saved  a  man. 
Transformation  is  the  only  way.  And 
to  be  transformed,  a  man  must  wel- 
come  the    Spirit  of    Good,   the   Holy 


28  THE   BATTLE   OF   LIFE 

Spirit,  into  his  heart,  and  work  with 
Him  every  day,  doing  the  will  of  God. 

There  are  two  ways  of  fighting  fever. 
One  is  to  dose  the  sick  people  with 
quinine  and  keep  the  fever  down.  The 
other  is  to  drain  the  marshes,  and  pu- 
rify the  water,  and  cleanse  the  houses, 
and  drive  the  fever  out.  Try  nega- 
tive, repressive  religion,  and  you  may 
live,  but  you  will  be  an  invalid.  Try 
positive,  vital  religion,  and  you  will  be 
well. 

There  is  an  absorption  of  good  that 
guards  the  soul  against  the  infection 
of  evil.  There  is  a  life  of  fellowship 
with  Christ  that  can  pass  through  the 
furnace  of  the  world  without  the  smell 
of  fire  on  its  garments,  —  a  life  that  is 
full  of  interest,  as  His  was,  being  ever 
about  His  Father's  business ;  a  life  that 


THE    BATTLE    OF    LIFE  29 

is  free  and  generous  and  blessed,  as 
His  was,  being  spent  in  doing  good, 
and  refreshed  by  the  sense  of  God's 
presence  and  approval. 

Last  summer  I  saw  two  streams 
emptying  into  the  sea.  One  was  a 
sluggish,  niggardly  rivulet,  in  a  wide, 
fat,  muddy  bed;  and  every  day  the 
tide  came  in  and  drowned  out  that 
poor  little  stream,  and  filled  it  with 
bitter  brine.  The  other  was  a  vigor- 
ous, joyful,  brimming  mountain-river, 
fed  from  unfailing  springs  among  the 
hills;  and  all  the  time  it  swept  the 
salt  water  back  before  it  and  kept 
itself  pure  and  sweet;  and  when  the 
tide  came  in,  it  only  made  the  fresh 
water  rise  higher  and  gather  new 
strength  by  the  delay ;  and  ever  the 
living    stream    poured    forth   into   the 


30  THE   BATTLE   OF   LIFE 

ocean  its  tribute  of  living  water,  —  the 
symbol  of  that  influence  which  keeps 
the  ocean  of  life  from  turning  into  a 
Dead  Sea  of  wickedness. 

My  brother-men,  will  you  take  that 
living  stream  as  a  type  of  your  life 
in  the  world?  The  question  for  you 
is  not  what  you  are  going  to  get  out 
of  the  world,  but  what  you  are  going 
to  give  to  the  world.  The  only  way 
to  meet  and  overcome  the  inflowing 
tide  of  evil  is  to  roll  against  it  the 
outflowing  river  of  good. 

My  prayer  for  you  is  that  you  may 
receive  from  Christ  not  only  the  watch- 
word of  this  nobler  life,  but  also  the 
power  to  fulfil  it. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 

Return  to  desk  from  which  borrowed. 
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